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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Is human brain lost in space

Is human brain lost in space

The limitations of the human brain mean some of the biggest mysteries of the universe may never be solved, a top scientist has claimed.

According to the President of the Royal Society Lord Martin Rees, questions about the big bang and the existence of parallel universes may be never resolved because of the built-in limitations of mankind. He said that a true fundamental theory of the universe may exist, but could be just too hard for human brains to grasp.

Just as a fish may be barely aware of the medium in which it lives and swims, so the microstructure of empty space could be far too complex for unaided human brains.

His prediction was prompted by the failure of scientists to reconcile the forces that govern the behaviour of the cosmos with those that rule the micro world of atoms and particles.

While Einstein used mathematical calculations to build his 1915 theory of general relativity and 20th-century physicists devised quantum theory, no scientists has since found the tools to unify the two.

"Some aspects of reality, a unified theory of physics or a full understanding of consciousness, might elude us simply because they are beyond human brains, just as surely as Einstein ideas would baffle a chimp, "Rees said.

The royal astronomer said, "There are powerful reasons to suspect that space has a grainy structure, but on a scale a trillion trillion times smaller than atoms. Solving how this might work is crucial for 21st-century science."